What are Worm Castings?

Worm castings... first off, can you guess the first person to write about them? Charles Darwin, father of evolutionary theory. Shoutout to Charlie.

So... what are worm castings?

Well- here's this if it helps: Worm cast: a convoluted mass of soil, mud, or sand thrown up by an earthworm or lugworm on the surface after passing through the worm's body. 

Or check out the question on #AskNorth40 below.

But what are worm castings REALLY?

Organic compost naturally contains large amounts of minerals and trace elements, those compounds are ingested by the worm and altered chemically and biologically in their stomachs to pass through and become the "casting" one of the most natural and effective fertilizers you can get.

And if you are looking for another resource on fertilizers, check out this blog about creating the PERFECT fertilizer and growing blueberries in Montana.

But back to worms--why would you want to use such an almost perfect super-food for your plants? Well... let's see.

Benefits of Worm Castings

• Improved plant growth
• Soil softening
• Biological decomposition
• Beneficial nematodes
• Fungus control
• Odor elimination
• Insect repellent 

How do Worms and Worm Castings Impact your Plants?

Extensive university plant growth research has been performed by Ohio State, Cornell University, U.C. Davis, the Australia SIRO, and other agriculture organizations to test the benefits of worm castings.

If you're looking for gardening tools, you can check out our supply online here.

These tests have shown improved plant size, bloom quantity, quality, and color for flowers. Fruit and vegetable tests have shown significant yield increases as well as improvements in taste and appearance. Ohio State research showed that the optimum ratio of worm castings to native soil is 10-20 percent.

You can find a much more extensive article on the benefits of worm casting and vermiculture over at Organicrosecare.org, or you can read through our most recent North 40 eMag: Garden Edition here.

Creating your Own Worm Bin

Creating a worm bin is easy and brings the lessons of composting and natural degrading processes front and center into your garden or family. Plus, it's a great way to reduce your waste products, and create a much fuller, better looking garden.

A couple things there are a million DIY plans for worm bins/houses/farms. You can see a bunch of them pinned to our N40 Green House board HERE.

You need to be sure to choose the RIGHT worms, and those are composting worms, also called Red Wigglers. Red Wigglers eat 10X their weight in food every 2 days... earthworms can't do that.

What is produced is called, "Worm Tea" and is an extremely valuable fertilizer. A good ratio to break down with is 10:1 so if you collect 1 liter of worm tea from your worm farm, cut it with 10 liters of water and feed it to your plants. You can also use this worm tea for Foliar feeding, a type of plant feeding whereby you apply liquid fertilizer directly to the leaves of the plants.

Things to Remember when Feeding your Worms

Never use meat, citrus or dairy cottage cheese, milk or regular cheese. This substances will sour your farm and could possibly kill your worms.

Plus, if your farm is inside like some of the ones above, the smell generated by the bacteria present when meat and dairy decompose could make your whole house stink!